FCC Releases Net Neutrality Rules

We have to believe that most of the suits in Washington, D.C. were in a
hurry to get back home for the holidays, but an FCC ruling was able to
be hammered out just before the Christmas break. Net neutrality has been
one of the biggest issues in the FCC circle this year, along with rural
broadband. As the Internet has grown, so has concern that ISPs may have
too much power over their users. Earlier in the year, Comcast was
chided for "throttling users" that were transferring peer-to-peer
applications, which led to a heated debate over what an Internet service
provided can and cannot do to a user's bandwidth.

Net neutrality is a huge, tangled issue. There are fierce debates
ongoing on both sides, from those who think the government needs to
regulate ISPs and those who think the government should stay far away
from the Internet altogether. These newest rules aren't nearly the only
ones we'll hear of over the next few years, but it's a start. On
Christmas Eve, the FCC managed to release the full net neutrality rules
for the world to pore over. They were only passed by a 3-2 vote, and
both Republicans and Democrats had reason to complain.

But that's politics, and that's definitely not unexpected. The new rules
are sort of soft; there's nothing too hard-hitting in here, and nothing
too shocking. First off, ISPs will be required to be very transparent
about how they manage their network. They can no longer throttle or
discriminate in the shadows; how they manage their network must be made
public and okayed by the FCC. The new rules also disallow ISPs from
blowing a lawful application or service, or throttling the speeds
depending on application. But there's a loophole here. ISPs can accept
paid prioritization, with select outfits being able to pay for
selectively faster access to an ISP's customer base. These setups will
obviously undergo intense scrutiny before being passed, though.

On the wireless side, the rules are far less certain. Wireless operators
will still have to be transparent about how they manage traffic, but
that's about it. They also cannot block certain applications
willy-nilly, but overall, they have far more flexibility in controlling
their network due to wireless being far newer and subject to new
competitors than wireline. None of these new rules will make a huge,
huge impact in how your Internet is delivered most likely, but of
course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. What happens next is
anyone's guess.